FILE -- In this July 24, 2016 file photo, a U.S. military personal stands guard during a graduation ceremony for Afghan troops, in Lashkargah, capital of southern Helmand province, Afghanistan. A U.S. report released Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017, said that Afghanistan needs a stable security environment to prevent it from again becoming a safe haven for al-Qaida and other militants. The new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction says Afghan security forces have not yet become capable of securing all of Afghanistan by themselves. (AP Photos/Abdul Khaliq, File)

Three US soldiers were wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire inside a base

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March 19, 2017 04:29 PM EDT

An Afghan soldier what shot dead Sunday after opening fire inside a base in the southern Helmand province and wounding three U.S. soldiers.

Navy Cpt. Bill Salvin, a spokesman for the U.S. military, said coalition forces killed the Afghan soldier "to end the attack."

A spokesman for the Afghan army, Col. Mohammad Rasoul Zazai, said the soldier made a "mistake" and had not opened fire deliberately.

U.S. Military Deployments in Afghanistan

Military Deployments in Afghanistan

In recent years, several U.S. servicemembers have been killed in Afghanistan as part of so-called insider attacks that have been carried out by Afghan police or soldiers.

An American soldier and civilian contractor were shot and killed last October inside a military base in Kabul. The Afghan man accused of killing them was wearing a military uniform at the time of the attack.

In addition, The Guardian reports that two Romanian soldiers were killed last year by members of the local Afghan police unit they were training.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan

Taliban insurgents carried out a suicide bombing at a district headquarters in the Kandahar province, Samim Khpolwak told the Associated Press. It is still unclear how many people were killed or injured in that attack.

An unnamed security official said six police officers and five others were killed in the Taliban-claimed attack.